6

Sep

India of Nehru an object of envy in troubled South Asia

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Dr John Dayal

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New Delhi | Friday | 6 September 2024

Pakistan was founded based on religion, and birthed in the bloodies of partitions in any country in modern times. Bangladesh was born in the heady cauldron of culture, ethnicity, and mother tongue, but is struggling with primeval ghosts of religious extremism, military ambitions and the dictatorial ambitions of two women, both with extremely traffic and painful pasts. One is the surviving child of an assassinated and much-loved mass leader, the other the widow of a military dictator who, nonetheless, did help settle a two-party system in the nascent country.

Time will tell how Bangladesh takes shape after its current quake which has taken over 600 lives – of students, police, Awami League members, and Hindus.

If Islamic theocracies don’t work well in Asia, as Pakistan and Bangladesh show in two very different ways, Nepal proved that Hindu monarchies are no better glue to keep people together.

The monarchies which Nehru once helped survive, if not thrive, away from the yoke of a powerful clan, eventually perished under the weight of their misrule. The last generation ended for good in a patricidal massacre in the palace. The long years of a Maoist insurgency have segued into a political system of merging and breaking coalitions, powered by a handful of leaders.

 

Article at a Glance
 
Pakistan and Bangladesh, founded on religion and ethnicity respectively, face significant issues. Pakistan, once secular and led by the best minds, has degenerated into political uncertainty and corruption.
Bangladesh, despite its cultural diversity, is grappling with religious extremism and military ambitions. Nepal's Hindu monarchy failed to unite people, while Sri Lanka faces political and economic turmoil after a long civil war.
India, with its secular, multicultural society, remains an envied object of reference in the region.

 

Sri Lanka, the fortunate, island is possibly in the worst shape, worse than Pakistan. It barely survived a war that politicians and the Buddhist Sangha waged on their own young. Barely out of that bloodbath, the same group of ethnic politicians, whatever their party labels, backed by the same Sangha, embarked on one of the longest and bloodiest civil wars. It took its toll not only on the Tamil north and east of the island’s population but also on India. Rajiv Gandhi, who had sought to intervene in the Tamil-Sinhala existential conflict, was assassinated once he lost office, and with it, the bomb-proof security which could perhaps have saved his life. Two decades later, the island is apolitical and economic wreck.

Looking at Pakistan, any country in the world would say “There, but for the Grace of God, go I”. Born Islamic but secular, as its founder Jinnah proclaimed to the world, with the best brains of the sub-continent at the helm of affairs, it has in seven decades degenerated to a level where political scientists cannot tell if at the moment it is democratic, or the army controls its affairs.

Riven with ethnic strife, terrorism, and a cesspool of corrupt politicians, Pakistan has in recent months seen a once ruling political party all but outlawed, its founders in jail. A defeated set of politicians, their leaders in exile to escape more charges of corruption, are called back by the army to set up a government. A moot question whose hand is on the lever of power, and the key to the treasury.

Perhaps wounded secularism, a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multilingual society that baulks at being confined in artificial and forced uniformity, that is raucous and sometimes acrimoniously noisy, India is yet an object of envy in this part of the world, perhaps in the world at large.

Happy birthday, Bharat ji.

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